Paleo Cooking 101: Fats, Oils and Sugar

The paleo diet and lifestyle avoids processed and refined foods including grains, beans, artificial/refined sugars, and most pasteurized dairy products focusing instead on fresh vegetables, juicy fruits, and protein-rich eggs, meats, and nuts. Inspired, we’ve put together a guide to getting started – Paleo Cooking 101: Fats, Oils and Sugar – in order to get the most nutrient-dense benefits from your foods and promote health and wellness without sacrificing taste!

Cooking with Fats and Oils

Let’s discuss cooking with fats and oils. The Paleo lifestyle avoids overly processed and refined forms of fats and oils. When cooking these recipes, do not use fats with labels such as “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated,” as these are manmade products with minimal health values. The more popular unhealthy fats include:

Margarine/buttery spreads

Canola oil

Vegetable oil

Soybean oils

Seed oils (grapeseed oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil)

Shortenings made from any of these oils

Try to use healthy, minimally processed fats for your cooking needs. Coconut oil is one of the best options for cooking at high temperatures. Though high in saturated fats, it is a naturally occurring product that has a wealth of nutrient-dense health values. Another option? A high quality, grass-fed, and organic butter is also a great option for cooking. And, of course, rendered fats from beef, pork, chicken, and lamb is ideal…and full of fatty, wonderful flavor! Also acceptable forms of fat are:

Olive oil

Sesame oil

Nut oil (macadamia, walnut, etc.)

The Natural Sweet Tooth

Our paleo-friendly desserts minimize the overall sugar content using only small amounts of less processed, less refined sweeteners like maple syrup and honey. Our main focus with the desserts is the natural beauty of fresh and wholesome ingredients that already have big flavor on their own: peaches, blueberries, limes, coconut, carrots, nuts…a natural sweet tooth deserves natural ingredients!

We’ve made a majority of these recipes easy to change and modify to better fit your own food preferences and diet lifestyles. Enjoy the seasonal offerings of your local farmer’s markets or the growing bounty from your own fruit, vegetable, or herb gardens. Be inspired by your own surroundings to create a paleo meal that is both a unique and personal celebration of YOU!

Evona is a passionate foodie, entrepreneur and the founder of Undiscovered Kitchen, a digital farmer’s market for small batch, specialty foods! She loves discovering new foods from around the country and talking to the artisans who make them.